Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-dnltx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T00:23:36.438Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Decriminalising Queer Sexualities in India: A Multiple Streams Analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 October 2008

Alankaar Sharma
Alankaar Sharma*
Affiliation:
School of Social Work, University of Minnesota E-mail: sharm087@umn.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Against a historical and contemporary backdrop of queer sexualities in India, this paper discusses certain approaches towards agenda setting using the Multiple Streams policy framework (Kingdon, 1984; Zahariadis, 1999) to change Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code that criminalises non-normative sexual activities. The paper attempts to map the path of legal challenge to Section 377 and focus on the process of agenda setting as a crucial step in the campaign towards social policy change. It then examines some of the current trends and developments that, if used efficaciously through agenda setting, may result in a unique policy window opportunity.

Type
Articles
Information
Social Policy and Society , Volume 7 , Issue 4 , October 2008 , pp. 419 - 431
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Baudh, S. (2006), ‘Sodomy in India: sex crime or human right?’, IDS Bulletin, 37, 5, 58–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bhan, G. (2005), ‘Challenging the limits of law: queer politics and legal reform in India’, in Narrain, A. and Bhan, G. (eds), Because I Have a Voice, New Delhi: Yoda Press.Google Scholar
Bhaskaran, S. (2002), ‘The politics of penetration: Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code’, in Vanita, R. (ed.), Queering India: Same-sex Love and Eroticism in Indian Culture and Society, New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Bondyopadhyay, A. and Khan, S. (2004), Against the Odds: The Impact of Legal, Socio-cultural, Legislative and Socio-economic Impediments to Effective HIV/AIDS Interventions with Males who have Sex with Males in Bangladesh, Bangladesh: Bandhu Social Welfare Society and Naz Foundation International.Google Scholar
Bull, M., Pinto, S. and Wilson, P. (1991), ‘Homosexual law reform in Australia’, Trends and Issues in Crime and Criminal Justice, 29, Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology.Google Scholar
Chandrasekhar, C. (1997), ‘Queer in Bharat: the emergence of the gay and lesbian movement in India’, Discourses: An Asian–American Journal, Spring, 14–18.Google Scholar
Compston, H. and Madsen, P.K. (2001), ‘Conceptual innovation and public policy: unemployment and paid leave schemes in Denmark’, Journal of European Social Policy, 11, 2, 117–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fernandez, B. and Gomathy, N.B. (2005), ‘Voicing the invisible: violence faced by lesbian women in India’, in Narrain, A. and Bhan, G. (eds), Because I Have a Voice, New Delhi: Yoda Press.Google Scholar
Joseph, S. (2005), Social Work Practice and Men who have Sex with Men, New Delhi: Sage.Google Scholar
Kapur, R. (1999), ‘“A love song to our mongrel selves”: hybridity, sexuality and the law’, Social and Legal Studies, 8, 3, 353–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Khan, A. (2000), Adolescents and Reproductive Health in Pakistan: A Literature Review, Research Report No. 11, Islamabad: The Population Council.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kingdon, J.W. (1984), Agendas, Alternatives and Public Policies, Boston: Little, Brown & Company.Google Scholar
Laurent, E. (2005), ‘Sexuality and human rights: An Asian perspective’, Journal of Homosexuality, 48, 3/4, 163–225.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lawyers Collective (2007), ‘The HIV/AIDS Bill 2006’, http://www.lawyerscollective.org/%5Ehiv/Draft_Law_On_HIV.asp (accessed 26 September 2007).Google Scholar
McNeil, D.G. Jr. (2007), ‘India, said to play down AIDS, has many fewer with virus than thought, study finds’, The New York Times, 8 June, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/08/world/asia/08aids.html (accessed 15 October 2007).Google Scholar
Menon, N. (2007), ‘Outing heteronormativity: nation, citizen, feminist disruptions’, in Menon, N. (ed.), Sexualities, New Delhi: Women Unlimited.Google Scholar
Ministry of Women and Child Development (2006), India: Building a Protective Environment for Children, New Delhi: Ministry of Women and Child Development.Google Scholar
NACO (2006), ‘HIV estimates – 2004’, www.nacoonline.org/facts_hivestimates04.htm (accessed 5 October 2007).Google Scholar
Narrain, A. (2004), ‘The articulation of rights around sexuality and health: subaltern queer cultures in India in the era of Hindutva’, Health and Human Rights, 7, 2, 142–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Narrain, A. (2007), ‘Queer struggles around the law: the contemporary context’, in Menon, N. (ed.), Sexualities, New Delhi: Women Unlimited.Google Scholar
Narrain, A. and Bhan, G. (2005), ‘Introduction’, in Narrain, A. and Bhan, G. (eds), Because I Have a Voice, New Delhi: Yoda Press.Google Scholar
Narrain, S. (2005), ‘The queer case of Section 377’, Sarai Reader, 5, 466–9.Google Scholar
Nelson, B.J. (1984), Making an Issue of Child Abuse: Political Agenda Setting for Social Problems, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Parekh, S. (2003), ‘Homosexuality in India: the light at the end of the tunnel’, Journal of Gay and Lesbian Psychotherapy, 7, 1/2, 145–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
PUCL-K (2001), Human Rights Violations against Sexual Minorities in India: A PUCL-K Fact-finding Report about Bangalore, Bangalore: PUCL-Karnataka.Google Scholar
Ranchhoddas, R. and Thakore, D.K. (2002), The Indian Penal Code, 29th edition, Delhi: Wadhwa and Co.Google Scholar
Schneider, A. and Ingram, H. (1997), Policy Design for Democracy, Lawrence: University Press of Kansas.Google Scholar
Sharma, J. and Nath, D. (2005), ‘Through the prism of intersectionality: same sex sexualities in India’, in Misra, G. and Chandiramani, R. (eds), Sexuality, Gender and Rights: Exploring Theory and Practice in South and Southeast Asia, New Delhi: Sage.Google Scholar
The South and Southeast Asia Resource Centre on Sexuality (2005), ‘Voices against 377’, In Plainspeak, 1, 28–30.Google Scholar
Vanita, R. (2002), ‘Homosexuality in India: past and present’, IIAS Newsletter, 29, 10–11.Google Scholar
Vanita, R. and Kidwai, S. (2000), Same-Sex Love in India: Readings from Literature and History, New York: St. Martin's Press.Google Scholar
Voices Against 377 (2007), ‘Section 377 and child sexual abuse’, in Menon, N. (ed), Sexualities, New Delhi: Women Unlimited.Google Scholar
Yeoh, P. (2006), ‘Writing Singapore gay identities: queering the nation in Johann S. Lee's Peculiar Chris and Andrew Koh's Glass Cathedral’, The Journal of Commonwealth Literature, 41, 3, 121–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zahariadis, N. (1999), ‘Ambiguity, time, and multiple streams’, in Sabatier, P.A. (ed.), Theories of the Policy Process, Boulder, Westview Press.Google Scholar